IC and gearing

I'm in the process of installing a Wild Rides S-box in the Mustang as well as an ARB. The S-box has 3 different locations for the upper control arm to mount with the center being the stock location.

Currently the car 60's in the upper 1.40's-low 1.50's with a significant amount of body roll.

The arb should take care of the body roll well enough, but then I am wondering about gearing and the instant center.

Tires are 28x10.5s Mickey's and rear gears are 3.55's. Car weighs 3515 with me in it.

Strange single adjustables on the rear, stock struts and springs up front.

I have another 8.8 with 3.90 gears that I could use instead.

It hits the tires pretty hard like it is (footbrake) so would stretching out the IC by using the top hole in the S-Box be a good idea if I went to the 3.90's? Or should I just leave it alone and see what it does with just the arb?

what is the lower bar angle? picture at ride height? we can tell a lot of things with those since you have stock mounts.

Measuring the height of the pivots was one of those things I meant to do before I disassembled the rear end. haha

I'll look and see if I can find a pic.

I'm a big fan of making one change at a time. It simplifies the tuning process. Just looking at your avatar, I'd guess that the ARB is going to turn the car into a completely different animal. Definitely install the ARB, set it neutral with your butt in the seat, then make your other suspension adjustments after a couple of test hits. JMO.

Yep, what he said ^^^^^^^

I'm in the process of doing suspension set up /tuning on my SS 85 LX. I'm by no means a guru on this subject. Tony aka yellowhorse7 has been very helpful to me.

We set up the entire car as a package deal. If its changing 5 things we'll do it.

Now saying that. If you're not taking it to someone and aren't comfortable making a lot of changes you can just put the arb in neutral and make a hit and adjust from there.

I agree, get rid of the twist and it will be a different car for sure. Who's ARB are you installing?

I did a lot of reading on the net and of course you have cheerleaders for every brand under the sun. They all seem to work about the same so I decided to purchase a UPR. I have their lower arms in the car and they have worked well. I do like that their bar rides on roller bearings, but honestly the low price and free shipping is what sealed the deal.

BigBlockRanger wrote:I did a lot of reading on the net and of course you have cheerleaders for every brand under the sun.   They all seem to work about the same so I decided to purchase a UPR.  I have their lower arms in the car and they have worked well.  I do like that their bar rides on roller bearings, but honestly the low price and free shipping is what sealed the deal.  

Take and scribe a straight line the entire length of the arb and keep an eye on it. The roller bearing thing is really not a big deal because it doesn't move enough to utilize it. It is cheap though. Good luck and shoot some pics of how it launches afterward.

Watch the heims on the UPR bar. They will bend...

If you have little understanding of this stuff, go one at a time. It's not all that complicated but people tend to over think it and ignore the simple stuff. Like lower bar angle, age of tires, spring sag, CONVERTER SELECTION, binding, etc.

I've seen SOME fox bodies go 1.2x with stock shocks, springs and stock location bar points. And enough power of course....

DAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGG.

Removing the upper torque boxes is a huge pain in the ass if you have to do it in your driveway while lying on your back.

Thanks for the heads up on stuff to watch. If this were a car I raced week in and week out, I would have probably opted for a Team-Z xtreme duty bar. But for what I do, which is mostly tnt and drag week, the UPR will probably last me a long time.

for the light duty stuff light most cars need we just build our own. on the high horsepower stuff we've used up to gun drilled 45 spline axles. so you're right, every application can use different stuff.

Upper mounts are out, S-box is bolted in for now with the seat belt bolts and is squared up with the chassis. I was really surprised at how few spot welds actually hold those upper mounts in the car. Yowza. There are 3 hidden spot welds on each side tying the upper mount to the inside of the frame rail. Once I figured that out, it was much easier to get it all out.



ARB is 'out for delivery'. I love those words.  

"Out for delivery"...doubletalk for "Your guess is as good as ours." 

No longer "out for delivery". It's now in my grubby little hands.

Box looks like it was run over by a bus, but everything inside was a-ok. Can't wait for Saturday!

BigBlockRanger wrote:No longer "out for delivery".   It's now in my grubby little hands.  

Box looks like it was run over by a bus, but everything inside was a-ok.  Can't wait for Saturday!

UPS?

UPS indeed. Not exactly the best packaging though.

It's just a piece of CM tubing but probably thin walled so that is why I said to scribe a line.

Yeah I figured it was to watch for twisting.

The UPR bar is solid, not tubing.

BigBlockRanger wrote:Yeah I figured it was to watch for twisting.

The UPR bar is solid, not tubing.

oh, I didn't know they switched styles. maybe they will last longer.

not usually a fan of solid style but I think it is better than the super thin stuff they used to use.

Got the s-box all in and the bar welded in last weekend. The arb welding went much much better than I expected. I hate lying under the car trying to weld stuff.

I decided to stay with the 3.55's for now so I pulled the trac-lok apart and re-shimmed it back to where it is really tight, just like I did when I originally rebuilt this diff 4 years ago. I noticed it was starting to slip last time at the track when I was tightening lug nuts. I will start collecting a spool, 31 spline axles, etc. for the other housing (3.90's) and swap it at a later date.

ARB is in.   


I also measured the control arm heights.

LCA
11.25 F
10.125 R

UCA
17.625 F
17.125 R

When I entered this into baseline's calculator, I realized the arm angles actually diverge instead of converge at this ride height.  The AS number was 32% or so. I even went back and double measured because I though I goofed.  By lowering the front UCA to the other hole in the S-box, the AS goes up to 140%, IC length of 54" height 13.5" which sounds like the direction I want to go.  I suppose lowering the rear of the car might have a similar effect, but I like the ride height of the car right now so I don't want to monkey with that.

What are the actual lengths of the arms measured squarely in the car?

What are the control arms doing? Up? Down? And I don't mean angles. Different length bars and ride height change those angles!

IC and AS numbers are different for every car. I will say that your AS number seems a tad high....

Just wondering and trying to get edgeumakated....on your LCA and UCA measurements I assume this is from the floor to bolt center measurement? You have upper and lowers on each side of the car... what dictates to use the numbers from the left side or the right side? I know when Tony had me measure mine with me in the seat race ready, mine weren't the same and the calculator only gives a person the option to enter 6 measurements are there is actually 12. What gives

If you can snap a picture of this s box your talking about and the holes for moving the front UCA is throwing me a curve...I don't have anything like that